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Who Was Peter Matthiessen, Really?

Who Was Peter Matthiessen, Really?

Terry McDonell Talks to Lance Richardson About Matthiessen’s Moral Ambiguity, Bigfoot, and More

By Terry McDonell | October 14, 2025

The Craft of This Mortal Coil: Jonathan Gluck on Writing a Different Cancer Story

The Craft of This Mortal Coil: Jonathan Gluck on Writing a Different Cancer Story

Terry McDonell in Conversation with the Author of “An Exercise in Uncertainty”

By Terry McDonell | June 11, 2025

Graydon Carter on <br>The Golden Age of Magazines

Graydon Carter on
The Golden Age of Magazines

Terry McDonell Talks to Legendary Editor About His New Book

By Terry McDonell | March 25, 2025

Telling the Same Story Differently: Terry McDonell on Writing About His Mother, Irma

Telling the Same Story Differently: Terry McDonell on Writing About His Mother, Irma

In Conversation with Andrew Keen on Keen On

By Keen On | May 15, 2023

How To Write About Your Mother

How To Write About Your Mother

Terry McDonell: “I did not set out to write about Irma.”

By Terry McDonell | May 12, 2023

“I Never Saw Her Cry.” Terry McDonell Remembers His Mother, Irma

“I Never Saw Her Cry.” Terry McDonell Remembers His Mother, Irma

“What passes between a mother and a son is not defined by her love in the moment, but later by the echoes of her motherhood.”

By Terry McDonell | May 1, 2023

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

  • Big Kiss, Bye-Bye
  • Bad Bad Girl
  • The Ten Year Affair
  • Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
  • Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
  • Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution

25 new books coming out today.

By Gabrielle Bellot | April 11, 2023

How Hunter S. Thompson Would Cover Donald Trump

By Terry McDonell | August 3, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: Is Your Novel Actually Fiction or Non?

By Terry McDonell | August 1, 2017

So You’ve Decided to Write: The Best Way to Deal with Rejection

So You’ve Decided to Write: The Best Way to Deal with Rejection

“I long to hold the poetry editor’s penis in my hand.”

By Terry McDonell | July 27, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: The Writer I Never Had to Edit

So You've Decided to Write: The Writer I Never Had to Edit

Terry McDonell on the Value of Leaving Well Enough Alone

By Terry McDonell | July 26, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: On Editing James Salter

So You've Decided to Write: On Editing James Salter

Terry McDonell on Working with a "Writer's Writer"

By Terry McDonell | July 20, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: Take Advantage of Your Insomnia

So You've Decided to Write: Take Advantage of Your Insomnia

Terry McDonell on the Importance of Taking Nighttime Notes

By Terry McDonell | July 19, 2017

So You've Decide to Write: What I Learned Editing Hunter S. Thompson

So You've Decide to Write: What I Learned Editing Hunter S. Thompson

Terry McDonell on the Origin of 'Gonzo' and Late Night Calls from Hunter

By Terry McDonell | July 18, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: What I Learned From Editing Jim Harrison

So You've Decided to Write: What I Learned From Editing Jim Harrison

Part Three of Terry McDonell's Summer Series on Becoming a Writer

By Terry McDonell | July 13, 2017

So You've Decided to Write: When to Drown Your Darlings

So You've Decided to Write: When to Drown Your Darlings

Part Two in Terry McDonell's Summer Series on How to Be a Writer

By Terry McDonell | July 12, 2017

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    • The Trauma Behind the "Good Old Days": Christina Henry on the Dark Trap of Nostalgia in FictionNovember 4, 2025 by Christina Henry
    • Big Kiss, Bye-Bye
    • The Best Reviewed Books of the Week
    • "Not much happens In fact there is much in the text that is not made…"
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